Lot 170: Mountaineering Sierra Nevada 1872 1st issue

Lot 170: Author: King, Clarence; Title: Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada; Place Published: Boston; Publisher: James R. Osgood; Date Published: 1872; Description: [6], 292 pp. (8vo) original pebbled purple cloth, spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. First Edition, First Issue.First issue, with the JRO monogram on the title page, "University Press: Welch, Bigelow & Co., Cambridge" on its reverse, and "Cambridge: Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow & Co." on the foot of p. 292. The Zamorano 80 describes the work as "A pleasing series of sketches about the Sierra Nevada, by a man who in 1879 became the first Director of the United States Geological Survey." The book is so well-written that Farquhar notes: "The lack of further words from the pen of Clarence King has been deplored by his friends and admirers as well as by the thousands who have read Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada." Bookplates of Jennie A. Crocker and two others on front endpapers. Cowan p. 328; Currey & Kruska 224; Farquhar 12a; Graff 2329; Howes K148; Zamorano Eighty 47. Condition: Moderate soiling to cloth, some wrinkling and a bit of fraying at head and heel of spine; some discoloration at title page, hinges cracked; else very good.
PBA Galleries' Sale 578: Americana, Travel/Exploration, Cartography, African/Asian Americana and Directories
Thursday, 28th January 2016
Estimate: $300-500